Mama Said: “Bloom where you’re planted”

Mama had a saying for just about everything, but another of her favorites was, “Bloom where you’re planted.” One of my friends related a story from her childhood that brought out that saying from her mama.

She recounts: “I never paid much attention to that one until the summer I decided the grass really was greener on the other side of the fence.

“I was about 12 years old, and my best friend, Linda, had what I considered the perfect life. Her family had a beautiful house, a swimming pool and a bedroom big enough for two beds. She even had a telephone in her room. Meanwhile, I shared a bedroom, helped shell beans on the porch and considered a trip to the grocery store an exciting Saturday outing.

“One particularly hot afternoon, I announced to Mama that I wished I lived somewhere else. “Somewhere else?” she asked, not looking up from the green beans in her lap.

“’Yes, ma’am. Somewhere with a swimming pool and air conditioning. Somewhere people actually get to do things.’

“Mama snapped another bean and dropped it into the bowl. ‘Well, honey, you can spend your whole life wishing you were somewhere else, or you can bloom where you’re planted.’

“I rolled my eyes. Mama had a way of making everything sound like a lesson. ‘I’m not a flower,’ I informed her.

“’No,’ she said, ‘but right now you’re acting like a weed.’

“That ended the conversation.

“A few days later, Mama handed me a rusty coffee can filled with dirt and three tiny marigold plants. ‘Put these on the porch,’ she instructed. ‘And take care of them.’

“I wasn’t impressed. Linda had a swimming pool. I had a coffee can. But I watered those little plants every morning, mostly because Mama asked me whether I had. Before long, green leaves filled the can, and then came three bright orange blossoms.

“One afternoon, Linda came over and spotted them.’Those are pretty,’ she said. ‘I wish I could grow flowers like that. Everything we plant dies.’

“I stared at her. Here was a girl with a swimming pool, a telephone and a bedroom all her own, admiring my flowers in a rusty coffee can.

“For the first time, I wondered whether having everything really meant having everything.

“That summer, Linda spent more afternoons at our house than hers. We caught lightning bugs, ate watermelon on the porch and listened to Mama tell stories about people we had never met but somehow felt we knew.

“And those marigolds kept blooming.

“Years later, I finally understood what Mama was trying to teach me.

Bloom where you’re planted doesn’t mean you have to stay where you are forever. It means you shouldn’t waste the life you have while waiting for the life you think you want.

The saying has been around for generations, although its exact origin is uncertain. It is often associated with the idea of finding purpose and contentment in whatever circumstances life brings.

It doesn’t mean settling for less than you deserve or giving up on your dreams. It means making the most of today while working toward tomorrow.

Some people spend their lives waiting for the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect relationship or the perfect opportunity before allowing themselves to be happy.

Mama believed happiness was something you cultivated, not something you waited to find.

Mama was right about a lot of things.

Especially that.

Mama said: “Bloom where you’re planted.”

And sometimes the prettiest flowers grow in the most unexpected places.